| 1859 | | Marshall Field, born in Massachusetts, arrives in Chicago at the
age of 22. |
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| 1860 | | Field becomes a junior partner in the Cooley, Farwell and Company dry-goods firm.
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| 1865 | | Field and his colleague, Levi Z. Leiter, acquires a majority interest in a dry-goods store owned by Potter Palmer. The store had been in business since 1852. The new firm operates under the name of Field, Palmer, and Leiter.
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| 1867 | | Potter Palmer sells his share in the firm.
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| 1868 | | Field and Leiter move into a new building owned by
Potter Palmer on the northeast corner of State and Washington Streets. (12 October)
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| 1871 | | The Field and Leiter store is destroyed by the Great
Chicago Fire. (8-9 October)
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| 1872 | | Field and Leiter open a new, temporary five-story store
on the southeast corner of Madison and Market Streets. (25 April)
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| 1873 | | Field and Leiter return to State Street, occupying the
five-story Singer Building at their old location on the northeast corner of
State and Washington Streets. (9 October)
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| 1877 | | A nighttime fire destroys the new store on State
Street. The business establishes temporary quarters in the sprawling
Exposition Building along Michigan Avenue on the present site of the Art
Institute. (14 November)
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| 1878 | | Field and Leiter moves into a new location along Wabash
Avenue between Madison and Monroe. (11 March)
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| 1879 | | The store returns to its former location at State and
Washington Streets, occupying a newly built Singer Building. (28 April)
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| 1881 | | Field and Leiter end their partnership of 16 years and the firm
takes the name of Marshall Field and Company.
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| 1882 | | Field's becomes the first big department store in Chicago to install electric light fixtures.
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| 1887 | | Field's opens a massive, new building to house its wholesale operations. Designed by Henry Robson Richardson, the building occupied the entire city block bounded by Adams, Quincy, Wells, and Franklin Streets. (20 June)
Field appoints Harry Selfridge to run the firm's growing retail store.
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| 1888 | | Field expands the State Street retail store by acquiring two
five-story buildings to the north of the original store.
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| 1890 | | The store creates a new social tradition among Chicago women by opening a
new tearoom with fifteen tables on the third floor. (14 April)
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| 1893 | | Field expands the retail store again with the opening of the
new, nine-story Annex on the northwest corner of Wabash and Washington
Street.
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| 1898 | | The mansard roof of the old Singer Building is removed and three
additional floors added.
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| 1900 | | After acquiring the Central Music Hall on the southeast
corner of State and Randolph Streets, as well as the buildings north of
the Annex on Wabash, Field launches a massive rebuilding program for the
retail store.
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| 1906 | | Field dies of pneumonia in New York City. (16 January)
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| | John G. Shedd, head of the firm's wholesale division, becomes
the new president of Marshall Field and Company.
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| 1907 | | A week-long, grand-opening celebration heralds the
completion of the firm's new, twelve-story retail store. (30 September)
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| 1914 | | Field's expands to encompass an entire city block with the
addition of a new, twelve-story building on the southwest corner of Wabash
and Randolph Street.
Field's Store for Men opens in a new building on
the southwest corner of Wabash and Washington Streets. It is connected
to the rest of the store by a tunnel beneath Washington Street. (26 March)
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| 1923 | | James Simpson succeeds Shedd as president of the company.
Field's purchases A. M. Rothschild and Company, a discount department store located at State Street and Jackson Boulevard, for $9 million. It is renamed The Davis Store. (29 December)
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| 1928-29 | | Field's opens its first branch stores, located in Lake Forest, Evanston, and Oak Park, Illinois.
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| 1929 | | Field's purchases the Frederick and Nelson department store in Seattle, Washington. (14 June)
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| 1930 | | Field's opens its massive Merchandise Mart in an effort to
revive slumping wholesale activity. (6 August)
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| 1932 | | As the Great Depression hits, Field's sees its first
money-losing year with a $100,000 deficit.
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| 1941 | | Field's opens its exclusive 28 Shop, which sells designer
clothes for women.
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| 1943 | | Hughston M. McBain becomes president of the company.
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| 1945 | | Field's sells the money-losing Merchandise Mart to Boston
financier and political patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy.
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| 1955 | | Park Forest, Illinois store opens.
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| 1956 | | Old Orchard shopping center store opens in Skokie, Illinois.
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| 1959 | | Mayfair Mall store opens in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
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| 1962 | | Oak Brook, Illinois store opens.
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| 1966 | | River Oaks shopping center store opens in Calumet City, Illinois.
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| 1971 | | Woodfield Mall store opens in Schaumburg, Illinois.
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| 1973 | | New stores open at Hawthorn shopping center in Vernon Hills, Illinois and Cherry Vale shopping center in Rockford, Illinois.
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| 1975 | | New stores open at Fox Valley Mall in Aurora, Illinois and Water Tower Place on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
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| 1976 | | Orland Square store opens in Orland Park, Illinois.
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| 1978 | | Louis Joliet Mall store opens in Joliet, Illinois.
Field's State Street store is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
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| 1979 | | Field's opens its first Texas store at Houston's Galleria shopping center.
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| 1980 | | Field's acquires the 23-store J.B. Ivey & Company department store chain based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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| 1981 | | Stratford Square store opens in Bloomingdale, Illinois.
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| 1982 | | Tobacco conglomerate Batus Industries, Inc. purchases Field's for approximately $365 million.
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| 1987-92 | | Field's State Street store undergoes an extensive, $115 million renovation that includes a basement-level makeover and construction of a new, eleven-story atrium in what had been an alley and mid-store light shaft.
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| 1990 | | Minneapolis-based retailer Target Corporation, then known as Dayton Hudson Corporation acquires Field's and its subsidaries for $1.04 billion.
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| 1995 | | Northbrook Court store opens in Northbrook, Illinois.
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| 2004 | | Target Corporation sells off Marshall Field's to May Department Stores Company for $3.2 billion.
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| 2005 | | Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores Inc. gains ownership of Field's through its acquisition of Field's parent company, May Department Stores.
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